Wow! eBook
The Meeting Book: How the Best Companies Meet Better
Author(s): Paul M. English (Author)
- Publisher: Wiley
- Publication Date: May 26, 2026
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 240 pages
- ISBN-10: 139439179X
- ISBN-13: 9781394391790
Book Description
Proven lessons to make meetings worth it from Kayak.com co-founder Paul M. English
We’ve all experienced them. Meetings with no clear agenda, too many attendees with no clear role, unprepared presenters, chaotic social dynamics, and no resulting decisions. These kinds of meetings are a millstone around your company’s neck.
In The Meeting Book, serial entrepreneur and Kayak.com co-founder Paul M. English shares a bold new vision for transforming meetings from timewasters into engines of innovation. Drawing from decades of experience building and scaling startups, the book combines engaging, first-person stories and hands-on best practices you can apply to your meetings immediately.
You’ll learn how companies like Amazon, Intuit, and OpenTable revolutionized the way they run meetings. You’ll also discover how to set an agenda that works, inspire your team members, accommodate cultural differences in international settings, and take and analyze informative notes.
The book reveals:
- The habits, formats, and cultural shifts that make meetings energizing and productive
- How intentional gatherings can drive clarity, creativity, and connection, illustrated through stories from his ventures and nonprofits
- Lessons from his six successful startups: Kayak, Lola, Moonbeam, GetHuman, Boston Light, and Intermute
The Meeting Book is a must-read practical guide for leaders who want to build better teams―one meeting at a time. It shows you how to present information-rich roadmaps, set lofty and realistic goals, make high-stakes decisions, energize people, and grow your company. You’ll never look at meetings in the same way again.
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
PRAISE FOR THE MEETING BOOK
“The Meeting Book is a rare blend of storytelling and actionable wisdom, showing how companies like Amazon, Airbnb, Intuit, and LinkedIn transformed meetings from dreaded time-sinks into engines of trust, strategy, innovation, and performance.”
―YOUNGME MOON,Harvard Business School Professor
“For managers, nothing is more vital for success than building a strong and effective meeting culture, and Paul English shows through engaging narratives and takeaways how it’s done. What’s more, this book proves that meetings can be full of purpose and even, dare we say, fun.”
―DAVE DODSON,Stanford Business School, and Author of The Manager’s Handbook
“The Meeting Book mixes vivid stories and practical tools to turn mindless, mundane meetings into magic. Highly recommended if you are looking for ways to make innovation flourish.”
―SCOTT D. ANTHONY,Clinical Professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, and Author of Epic Disruptions
“Entrepreneurs who create successful companies are rare, yet Paul English has done it again and again. What Paul reveals in The Meeting Book is that building a strong meeting culture can make all the difference. Anyone who spends hours in meetings needs to read this book.”
―BILL AULET,Professor of the Practice of Entrepreneurship and Managing Director, The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
About the Author
PAUL M. ENGLISHis the founder of Boston Venture Studio and has co-founded and successfully sold six startups, including Kayak, Lola, Moonbeam, GetHuman, Boston Light, and Intermute. He also founded four nonprofits: Summits Education in Haiti, Embrace Boston, the Winter Walk for Homelessness, and the Bipolar Social Club. English is the subject of Tracy Kidder’s book A Truck Full of Money. His story has been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, Fast Company, and on Guy Raz’s NPR podcast How I Built This.
